The present invention relates to a pedal structure of an automotive vehicle, which includes an organ type accelerator pedal which is provided at a vehicle body and receives a forward pressing operation by a right foot of a passenger.
Conventionally, there are a hanging type and an organ type as the accelerator pedal which is provided adjacently to a brake pedal of the automotive vehicle. The hanging type accelerator pedal is configured such that a center of a forward rotation of the pedal is positioned above a pressing face where a sole of a passenger contacts, as shown in FIG. 1 of Japanese Utility-Model Laid-Open Publication No. S58-045136, for example. Accordingly, the hanging type accelerator pedal is configured such that when the passenger presses down the pedal with a support point of a heel which is placed on a floor surface of the automotive vehicle, a rotational locus of a right foot of the passenger and a rotational locus of the pedal are contrary to each other.
Meanwhile, the organ type accelerator pedal is configured, as shown in FIG. 3 of the above-described patent document such that the center of the forward rotation is positioned below the pressing face which the sole of the passenger contacts. Accordingly, in the organ type accelerator pedal, the rotational locus of the right foot of the passenger and the rotational locus of the pedal tend to substantially match each other when the pedal is pressed down.
Thus, it is said that the organ type accelerator pedal is more advantageous than the hanging type accelerator pedal in operability of the pedal and reduction of feeling of fatigue of the passenger.
In general, the pressing face of the organ type accelerator pedal is positioned in front of the pressing face of the brake pedal in a vehicle longitudinal direction. Therefore, when the passenger moves a tip of the foot to the pressing face of the organ type accelerator pedal from the pressing face of the brake pedal for an accelerator pedal's operation, keeping the position of the heel of the right foot which has been placed on the floor surface for the brake pedal's operation, the heel of the right foot is positioned in back of the pressing face of the organ type accelerator pedal in the vehicle longitudinal direction.
In this case, for example, the rotational center of the organ type accelerator pedal having a roughly flat-plate shaped pedal and the heel of the right foot are spaced apart from each other, so that the rotational locus of the right foot and the rotational locus of the pedal does not easily match each other.
Further, the above-described unmatched locus between the foot's rotational locus and the pedal's rotational locus causes a slip of the sole, so that the heel is shifted forward or away from the floor surface. Herein, the driver reflexively makes an ankle joint have plantar flexion or dorsiflexion in order to stabilize the pressing operation of the foot.
In the case where the heel of the right foot is placed on a portion of the floor surface which is positioned in back of the pressing face of the organ type accelerator pedal having the roughly flat-plate shaped pedal as described above, the driver tends to move the ankle joint often because of the above-described unmatched locus, so that there is a problem that the driver may have feeling of fatigue with the right foot too much.